THE IMAGE OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD IN ENGLISH

TEXTBOOKS:

In Touch 1-3 and Open Road 1-3

Bachelor´s thesis

Anette Tervo

University of Jyväskylä

Department of Languages

English

11.01.2012

JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO

Tiedekunta – Faculty

Humanistinen tiedekunta

Laitos – Department

Kielten laitos

Tekijä – Author

Anette Tervo

Työn nimi – Title

THE IMAGE OF THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD IN ENGLISH

TEXTBOOKS:

In Touch 1-3 and Open Road 1-3

Oppiaine – Subject

Englannin kieli

Työn laji – Level

Kanditaatintutkielma

Aika – Month and year

Tammikuu 2012

Sivumäärä – Number of pages

23

Tiivistelmä – Abstract

Suomen opetushallituksen lukiokoulutuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteissa 2003 ei

määritellä tuleeko opettajan käyttää oppikirjaa apunaan opetuksessa vai ei. Selkeitä

tavoitteita kursseille ja opetukselle on kuitenkin asetettu, ja kulttuuritaitojen sekä – tiedon

omaksuminen ja oppiminen ovat osa niitä. Vieraat kielet määritellään lukion

opetussuunnitelman perusteissa tieto-, taito-, ja kulttuuriaineeksi ja oppilaiden

kulttuuritietämyksen kehittäminen onkin tärkeä osa opetusta. Tämä tutkimus käsittelee

englannin kieltä ja tarkoituksena oli selvittää mitkä englanninkieliset kulttuurit muodostavat

kahden lukiossa käytettävän kirjasarjan kulttuurisen sisällön. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli selvittää

missä suhteessa eri englanninkieliset kulttuurit esitellään kirjoissa ja onko olemassa mahdollisesti yhtä valtakulttuuria, joka on eniten esillä kirjoissa.

Kirjasarjat, joita käytettiin tähän tutkimukseen, ovat In Touch ja Open Road- sarjat ja

molemmista kirjasarjoista tutkittiin kolmen ensimmäisen kurssin kirjat. Lähtökohtana

tutkimukselle oli kaksi tutkimuskysymystä: millainen kuva englanninkielisestä maailmasta

esitellään kirjoissa ja missä suhteessa eri englanninkielisiä kulttuureja käsitellään toisiinsa

nähden. Oletuksena oli, että jokaisesta kirjasta tulee löytymään yksi tai kaksi valtakulttuuria,

jotka oletettavasti olisivat Amerikan ja Britannian kulttuurit, ja erot tutkimustuloksissa tulisivat ilmenemään pienempien englanninkielisten kulttuurien näkyvyydessä kirjoissa.

Tutkimusmetodina tutkimuksessa käytettiin kuvailevaa data-analyysia ja aineisto kerättiin

tutkimalla kuutta tekstikirjaa. Tulokset ovat suurimmaksi osaksi hypoteesien mukaisia, ja

kirjoissa käsitellään selkeästi kahta kulttuuria eniten: Amerikan ja Britannian kulttuureja, ja

muita englanninkielisiä kulttuureja paikoitellen. Kirjojen väliset erot löytyivät oletusten

mukaisesti ja ilmenivät muiden englanninkielisten kulttuurien, kuten Australian ja Irlannin

kulttuurien, esiintyvyydessä.

Asiasanat – Keywords Kulttuuri, englannin kieli, oppikirjat

Säilytyspaikka – Depository JYX

Muita tietoja – Additional information

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................4

2 ENGLISH-SPEAKING CULTURES ...............................................................................................5

2.1 Definition and aspects of culture ...................................................................................... 5

2.1.1 Culture and language .................................................................................... 6

2.1.2 English as a global language ........................................................................ 7

2.2 Variety of English-speaking cultures ............................................................................... 7

2.2.1 The Three Circles of English.......................................................................... 7

2.2.2 The Inner Circle’s cultures ............................................................................. 9

2.3 Culture in language learning and teaching ................................................................ 11

3 THE PRESENT STUDY ...............................................................................................................12

3.1 Research questions and hypotheses ............................................................................... 12

3.2 Data collection and the method of analysis ................................................................... 13

4 CULTURAL CATEGORIES .........................................................................................................14

4.1 In Touch and Open Road ................................................................................................ 14

4.2 Persons and products ....................................................................................................... 16

4.3 Practices and perspectives .............................................................................................. 18

4.4 Vocabulary ....................................................................................................................... 19

5 CONLUSION ................................................................................................................................20

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................................22

4

1 INTRODUCTION

The current national core curriculum for Finnish upper secondary schools does not define the

materials to be used in teaching, neither what kind of material has to be used or how it should

be used. Merely different kinds of aims in teaching and students learning objective´s outlines

are stated (National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools 2003). In other words,

Finnish foreign language teachers have power in deciding the structures and materials used in

the courses outlined in the syllabus. However, even though it is not required in Finland that

teachers use textbooks in teaching, 98% still do (Bärlund 2011). Therefore, it can be assumed

that the content of the textbooks can provide at least an outline of the content of teachers´ who

use textbooks, teaching.

The national core curriculum contains descriptions of each English course offered in schools

and all the upper secondary schools in Finland have to follow the outlines of these courses

and offer them to students. As stated above, the courses then differ according to the individual

school and teacher´s style: what topics or themes are emphasized or dealt with more care and

how the issues are taught. In this study the English language subject is all the time referred as

an A-language, a subject which syllabus starts in grades 1-6 of basic education. The English

language is taught in Finland as a practical, theoretical and a cultural subject. Objects of

teaching English are for example, to develop students´ intercultural communication skills, “to

develop their awareness, understanding and appreciation of the culture within the area or

community where the language is spoken”, and all in all “know how to communicate in a

manner characteristic of the target language and its culture” (National Core Curriculum for

Upper Secondary Schools 2003: 94). The English courses in upper secondary schools offered

all around Finland are divided into six compulsory courses and two specialization courses.

This study focuses on the first three compulsory courses “Young people and their world”,

“Communication and leisure” and “Study and work” (National Core Curriculum for Upper

Secondary Schools 2003).

The aim of the present study is to examine Finnish upper secondary school English textbooks

from a cultural point of view. The main reason for the study was to get a picture of which

English-speaking cultures (ESCs) are presented to Finnish upper secondary school students

and, therefore, of which cultures they gain knowledge. The two book series analysed, In

Touch and Open Road, were chosen because the series are both widely used around Finland.

Moreover, Open Road is a newer series and offers a fresher perspective on English teaching;

5

the Open Road series is advertised on the account of containing good authentic material,

whereas In Touch promotes the series by advertising them as coherent study packages. The

study is also intended as a fore study for my master´s thesis, in which I plan to study the same

topic, with the same point of view but to focus on observing teachers, and observe if

individual teachers have a leading ESC through which each of them teach the language. All in

all, this study provides information on through which ESCs the cultural images of the

English-speaking world are formed and presented in two Finnish English book series. The

study was carried out with two research questions as a guideline: which English-speaking

cultures create the image of the English-speaking world in the textbooks and what is the

balance between the cultures identified.

2 ENGLISH-SPEAKING CULTURES

2.1 Definition and aspects of culture

One of the key elements in the present study is the definition of culture. The complexity of it

is due to the fact that culture can be linked to and discussed in any context in the modern

society and hence can be seen from countless perspectives. Moreover, culture is a part of and

shapes all aspects of day-to-day life of each society and individual. A country’s customs and

individual’s behaviour can be explained and usually understood by searching for explanations

from their cultural background. An individual’s personal culture within society can be called

subjective culture and the more nationally shared culture that somehow shapes each

subjective culture can be identified as objective culture (Bennett, Bennett and Allen 2003:

243).

Furthermore, culture is usually divided into two categories: high culture and popular culture,

the latter also known as mass culture (Gans 1999: 6). Gans also discusses the definitions of

these two concepts and identifies high culture to be the art, music, literature and other

symbolic products valued by the well-educated citizens of society, and popular culture to

represent the cultural forms appreciated by the mainstream population of a society. However,

both of these culture forms refer to products used by the citizens, shared values, and the

cultural forms expressing these values, as for example, music, art, design, poetry or criticism

(Gans 1999: 8).

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The National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project (1996) in the U.S. has created

terms for aspects of culture, and grouped all issues relating to culture under the categories of

perspectives, as in myths, world views or inspirations; products, as in print, travel,

merchandise or entertainment; and practices, for example, customs and society approved

manners. In addition, Moran (2001: 25) adds another aspect of culture into the group and

terms it persons, as in national icons, fictional and real life individuals. The cultural aspects

consist of different cultural issues but together the categories form a solid definition of

culture.

2.1.1 Culture and language

The compound relationship between language and culture is another relevant topic in this

study. Wenying (2000: 328) discusses that culture and its relation to language can be

symbolized by a metaphor of an iceberg: language is the tip of the iceberg symbolizing the

visible part of culture and the rest of the iceberg under the surface is the invisible aspect of

culture to be discovered. Wenying also argues the separation of language and culture to be

impossible because of their interdependent relationship: language reflects culture and is

simultaneously influenced and shaped by it. Brown (1994: 165) describes the two as follows:

“A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately

interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either

language or culture”.

Preisler (1999: 256-266, as quoted in Wierzbicka 2006: 15) approaches the issue from the

perspective of language education and argues in agreement with Brown (1994): teaching

English only as a lingua franca, a language that is used systematically between people with

different mother tongues, without any cultural context, would lack the mediation of the

fundamental nature of a language. In other words, Preisler conveys that teaching a language

without acknowledging its origins and developments, learners might learn an unidiomatic

version of the language and therefore, mistake their idiomatic echoes of their mother tongue

as natural forms of language, in this case English. The status the English language has gained

during centuries is one of the most researched topics of scholars today and English has been

proven to be the most widely used language in the world (Wierzbicka 2006: 10). Crystal

(2003: 40) argues that the global status English has gained is the result of it being “in the right

place at the right time”, at the centre of international activity.

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2.1.2 English as a global language

Crystal (2003) discusses English as a global language and emphasizes the immense spreading

of the language and how it has become a universal lingua franca. Crystal (2003: 120-122)

mentions two reasons: a geological reason, emphasizing the movements of English in the era

of the British Empire, and a socio-cultural reason, i.e. the fact that people around the world

have become dependent on the English language in various aspects of life. In other words,

the rise of the British Empire and the expansion of British colonial power in the 19th century,

combined with the rise of the United States as a superpower and leading economic power in

the recent decades have enabled English to become a global language.

Due to the fact that English is as widely spread as it is, several English cultures have also

been formed and developed, with their distinctive versions of the English language. In

relation to this, Wierzbicka (2006: 6) points out an interesting issue: the complexity of the

phrase English language, when in fact multiple varieties of English languages exist within the

different English cultures around the world, and therefore, English language does not exist.

Wierzbicka does not consider this an ultimate truth but proposes that it would be appropriate

to use the term with an equivalent modifier, as British English or American English, and

mentions that these distinctions are more commonly accepted, and also useful. In turn,

another way to create distinctions between Englishes is a model proposed by Kachru in 1985

(Crystal 2003: 60-65). In his model the variations of English languages are divided into three

circles: Inner, Outer and Expanding. Wierzbicka (2006: 6) mentions that Kachru’s model is

widely accepted in literature and has been described as “pertinent and helpful”.

2.2 Variety of English-speaking cultures

2.2.1 The Three Circles of English

The purpose of Kachru’s model of The Three Circles of English is to show “1) the types of

spread of English worldwide 2) the patterns of acquisition, and 3) the functional domains in

which English is used internationally” (Bolton 2006: 292). In other words, the framework of

this model is the historical context of English, the status of the language and functions in

various regions (Kilickaya 2009: 35). Hence, Kachru’s model consists of three concentric

circles: Inner, Outer and Expanding, each of which represents a certain type of English

distribution and use, measured globally.

8

Figure 1: The Three Circles of English

As can be seen in Figure 1, the Inner Circle is formed by countries in which English is the

primary language: it includes the USA, the UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand,

South Africa and some Caribbean territories. The number of speakers reaches up to 380

million people, of which approximately 260 million speakers are in the United States. Kachru

(Bolton 2006: 249) considers these Native English-speaking countries´ cultures to be norm-

providing cultures for other ESCs.

Countries in the Outer Circle have acquired English in non-native circumstances and today

the language is used somehow as a second language, or at least has gained some degree of

recognition as an official, educational or legal language. There are over fifty countries in the

Outer Circle, which include, for example, Malawi, India, Singapore and Zambia, many of

which are former British colonies. The number of speakers in these regions is estimated to be

between 300 to 500 million.

The Expanding Circle, which is also the broadest circle when considering the number of

speakers (500-1000 million), include countries that recognize English as an international

language but do not have strong historical factors influencing in the background. This list of

countries includes also Finland, as well as China, Japan, Poland, Indonesia, Israel and Korea.

These nations do not recognize any administrative status of English but are learning English

as a foreign language and usually as the most influential foreign language as well (Bolton

2006: 292). All of these circles combined together include over 75 territories were English

holds “a special place” (Crystal 2003: 60).

9

2.2.2 The Inner Circle’s cultures

According to Kachru (Crystal 2003: 60) the cultures in the Inner Circle represent the

traditional bases of English. These ESCs have each formed a different cultural identity and

next the cultures will be discussed in more detail according to the aspects identified above:

perspectives, products, practices and persons.

It must be noted that almost all of the cultures in the Inner Circle have been influenced first by

the British culture, in the era of the British Empire. Due to that reason the language that has

influenced all of these cultures is English. The two most influential or strongest, even though

not the largest, ESCs are arguably the globally spread cultures of the United States and the

United Kingdom. Nevertheless, even though also having British roots, American culture has

developed with the influence of several other cultures, also European ones, and spread the

most widely across the world: for example the two most well-known trade brands globally are

American Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. Other issues that today are recognised as American

are, for example, Hollywood and its films, series, actors, directors, producers etc.; music

industry (famous artists, producers, MTV); sports (baseball, American football and basketball,

with world widely known teams, such as the Knicks and The New York Rangers); fast food

(McDonald´s); influential individuals (Barack Obama, Oprah); American English (strong

accent with distinctive pronunciation [/t/ = /d/] and word blending); and politics (Republican

and Democratic parties). All in all, one could argue that American culture leads and shapes

the popular culture side of other cultures around the world as it is the culture most widely

visible in the world (Snowman 1977: 17-19).

The other major ESC, British culture, on the other hand, has stronger roots in history than

American culture and therefore, it can be said it is not as changing and restless a culture as the

American one. The island of the United Kingdom and its culture as well is actually formed by

four different regions: Wales, Scotland, England and the Northern Ireland. Each of these

regions possesses their own variation of British culture but the roots are the same in all - the

English language, the British Empire and its results, the Industrial Revolution, strong national

identity, and overall a rich history. Today the British are known for their distinctive English

accent with idiosyncratic pronunciation, for example replacing the sound /t/ with a glottal

stop; the Queen and other national icons; literature (authors, classics, plays); the media (TV

shows, movies, magazines and newspapers with vast circulation); cuisine (fish and chips,

kidney pies and scones); politeness and other characteristic ways of behaviour. As a

10

summary, it could be said that the British culture relies more on traditions with deeper roots in

history and it has had time to influence greatly other cultures as well, mainly spreading the

high culture (Gans 1999: 14, Snowman 1977: 78, 102).

Another two other Inner Circle countries, which can be paired up as equivalent duo with the

USA and the UK pair, are Ireland and Canada. Both of these cultures are close both

geographically and characteristically to one of the two major norm-providing English-

speaking cultures. However, both the Irish and the Canadians use another language which is

partly as influential as English, and has gained somewhat a valued status in the culture during

the countries´ history. In Ireland it is Irish and in Canada, French, and therefore, with another

language with different cultural roots influencing the country´s culture, the nations have the

other culture, Irish or French, challenging the prevalence of the English culture (Crystal 2003:

66).

Brown (1994: 165) discusses this phenomenon as a reciprocal relationship: one cannot exist

without influencing the other, and therefore, a language cannot exist without influencing a

country on a cultural level. In any case, Irish and Canadian English-speaking cultures have

also other distinctive factors which separate the nations´ cultures from the two major ESCs,

American and British. For example, Canada, which is said to be a blend of cultures, a cultural

mosaic, is recognised as a country of winter sports (ice hockey); bilingualism; and welfare

(Crystal 2003: 108, 128). Also, the nation´s cultural identity is also strong and people

distinctively recognise themselves as Canadians, instead of Americans. Irish culture, on the

other hand, has its roots firmly in folklore. The Irish are known for their traditional music,

tales and myths; Celtic sports such as hurling, rugby and Gaelic football; distinctive version

of the English language; humour; and in general, a strong cultural identity (King 2006: 32).

In addition, Australia and New Zealand are countries belonging to the Inner Circle, and the

countries have also closely linked cultures compared to each other. The nations both have

strong historical roots and indigenous people still mark a special status in both cultures: in

Australia the aboriginal people have shaped the cultural image, and in New Zealand the Maori

culture plays a big part forming their cultural identity. However, Australian aboriginal´s

culture is stronger than Maori nations´ culture´s influence, as it has historically influenced

New Zealand’s culture but not vice versa.

11

New Zealand has the youngest culture of all of the Inner Circle countries. It was one of the

last lands settled by humans thousands of years ago (Brooking 2004: 11). Thus, New

Zealand’s cultural identity builds greatly on natural environment, Maori and Polynesian

aspects, even though it is today developing as a cosmopolitan culture. Australian culture also

relies on the force of the country´s nature: as Garden (2005: 1) notes that “Australians tend to

take preserve pride in the harshness of their landscape and its challenging environments”.

Finally, the cultures of the last two territories of the Inner Circle, the Caribbean and South

Pacific areas, can arguably be said to be the least globally spread cultures and therefore, the

least influential ESCs in the Inner Circle. The most significant characteristic of these

territories is that they are recognized through their environmental aspects: biodiversity in

surroundings.

2.3 Culture in language learning and teaching

A common procedure in teaching, as discussed above, is that language and culture cannot be

separated. Hence, teaching cultural knowledge and awareness is a major part of (foreign)

language teaching. Baker (2011: 67) argues that in addition to learning the grammatical

functions and features of English, an equally important aim is to teach the students how to

survive with English in intercultural situations: “Equally important is the ability to make use

of linguistic and other communicative resources in the negotiation of meaning, roles, and

relationships in the diverse sociocultural settings of intercultural communication through

English.”

All the English courses taught in Finnish upper secondary school are regulated by the Finnish

National Board of Education and therefore, as mentioned above, all courses must follow the

same syllabus and aim at the same learning results. Cultural issues are also included and

valued in the teaching objects of the core curriculum (National Core Curriculum for Upper

Secondary Schools 2003). However, the book series the schools can use are not appointed in

advance and neither is the approach or the completion of the courses, and thus, the schools

and teachers can in some aspects plan their courses by themselves. Hence, each school and

also each individual teacher have their own issues to focus on and invest in, and the textbooks

only provide a framework for the courses. Baker (2005: 68) also mentions that teaching

cultural situations of only two major cultures, the USA and the UK, which is usually the

direction in Finnish English teaching, “is clearly not sufficient for global uses of English. A

more extensive treatment and understanding of the varied cultural contexts of English use is

necessary”.

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3 THE PRESENT STUDY

3.1 Research questions and hypotheses

The studies of Kachru (Bolton 2006, Crystal 2003) and his model of the acquisition and use

of English today, The Three Circles of English, Crystal’s (2003) vast research of English as a

global language and Wierzbicka’s (2006) works are central themes in and support the data

analysis of the present study. The framework of the Inner Circle´s countries in Kachru´s

model is also the basis of the choices of the English-speaking cultures examined in this study.

In support, each of the cultural aspects, which are also referred as categories, are used in the

study as an outline of the data analysis.

The cultures described and dealt with above are the ones that were looked for in the textbooks

and the aim was to examine which English-speaking cultures are presented in the textbooks

and not specifically how the cultural aspects are presented. This also means that the study

does not reveal what the students are learning in class but only what the books of these two

book series have to offer. Another aim was to examine the relations and balance between the

cultures found in the books. The textbooks were examined with the help of two main research

questions:

(1) Which English-speaking cultures create the image of the English-speaking

world presented in upper secondary school´s In Touch and Open Road first-year

English textbooks?

(2) What is the balance between the cultures identified?

The main hypothesis was that at least two cultures would be presented in each book:

American and British culture. Another hypothesis was that the differences found between the

images of the English-speaking world created in the books would be found through the

presentation of other, minor ESCs. The sections of the book hypothesized to contain these

cultural references in, were main chapters, texts, exercises, pictures, songs, and vocabulary

section. Also, the vocabulary sections were hypothesized to contain references merely to

American and British Englishes and their spelling.

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3.2 Data collection and the method of analysis

The data was collected by examining six textbooks and the findings were categorized

according to the four categories of culture, mentioned above: persons, products, practices and

perspectives (National Board of Education 1996, Moran 2001). The cultures focused on were

the cultures of The Inner Circle (Crystal 2003: 60): American, British, Irish, Australian,

Canadian, Kiwi, South African, and Caribbean cultures. Each of the cultural aspects appears

in different ways in all of the Inner Circle´ cultures (ICCs), and with these divisions the

balance between the cultures presented in the books were examined.

The present study is a qualitative study and the method of analysis was descriptive data based

content analysis. The method was chosen because there was no prearranged ways of

examining the data or any predictable results to be discovered, and therefore this method was

found to be the most useful approach to the study. Each textbook was examined individually

and notes were made on the similar basis about each book. In other words, remarks were

collected and lists were created about cultural references, and the findings were divided

according to the cultural categories and partially to the structure of the textbooks. All the

textbooks could be roughly separated into two or three parts: the main part with texts and

follow-up tasks, the grammar-section with grammar points and exercises, and the vocabulary

section. The first two parts were examined by making notes of the cultural references within

the four categories, and the vocabulary section was examined by counting the references to

different ESCs, for example remarks of American or British ways of spelling.

Particular attention could be given to the culture-specific sections of the books, which are

emphasized in the textbooks themselves as culture parts of the content: In Touch has “Culture

Tip”-blocks and Open Road “FYI”-blocks. Correspondingly, another general remark of value

is that the textbooks were examined only according to the printed material. In other words, the

CD provided to students as a part of the book and all listening exercises were not taken into

consideration in the data analysis, unless there was a remark to, for example, specific

nationality mentioned in writing in the assignment in the textbook. Otherwise, all sections of

the textbooks were examined.

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4 CULTURAL CATEGORIES

The four aspects of culture, persons, products, practices and perspectives, also referred to as

cultural categories, were the outline of this study and the results can be categorized according

to them. The cultures to be examined in the books were the Inner Circle´s cultures (Crystal

2003: 60). Kachru (Bolton 2006: 292) has divided ESCs according to the status the English

language has gained in various countries and also the number of speakers that each of the

nations have worldwide. In general, the most references to different ECSs in all of the

textbooks were made within two categories – persons and products. Perspectives and

practices were noticeably more rarely occurring categories and cultural information is not

presented as frequently in the textbooks through these aspects. Another general observation

that could be formed is that the first hypothesis about finding two dominant cultures in each

book comes true in both book series: American and British cultures are the most visible

cultures in all of the books.

However, none of these textbooks is designed for a culture course, which is the fifth course -

Culture (National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools 2003: 96), and no clear

presumptions could, therefore, have been formed about the possible results. Nevertheless,

there are the specific aims about gaining cultural knowledge listed separately in the part of

“Foreign languages” in Finnish upper secondary schools´ core curriculum, which means that

culture teaching is present in all of the courses (National Core Curriculum for Upper

Secondary Schools 2003: 94-95).

The second hypothesis was that the differences between the textbooks´ cultural content would

be found according to the presentation of the other Inner Circle´s cultures in the textbooks,

and this is also in line with the study´s results.

The third hypothesis, which presumed American and British culture to dominate the

vocabulary section as well as the rest of the book´s content, however, is not realised that

openly: three cultures can be defined to dominate the books´ vocabulary sections: American

and British cultures, together with Australian culture.

4.1 In Touch and Open Road

Developing a student´s cultural identity and gaining cultural knowledge is merely one aim of

upper secondary school´s syllabus (National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools

15

2003). However, foreign language learning is one channel to study these issues and meet the

learning entities set to students, and examining book series that teachers use is one way to

learn more about it. Both the book series´ textbooks are designed according to the theme of

the course outlined in the core curriculum, and the In Touch books are called In Touch 1: Up

close and personal, In Touch 2: Been there, done that and In Touch 3: Get a Life!, and the

Open Road series´ books have the number of the course as a title, Course 1, Course 2 and

Course 3.

The observations made in all three of the In Touch textbooks are mostly in line with the

hypotheses of the present study, and thus, are dominated by the competition of visibility of

American and British culture, with few references to other ICCs. The In Touch textbooks are

divided into Units, each of which includes a variety of repetitive blocks of tasks (e.g. Get-

going, Intro, Key-text and Read-On-sections). Each of the textbooks contains four Units and

also a grammar-section, a refresh-section and a vocabulary-section. Even though all of the

Units include several different kinds of sections and selection of tasks within them, all of

them are not relevant in this study. The most relevant section is the Culture Tip- blocks,

which appear as boxes within the Units and reveal all manners of useful trivia about different

ESCs.

In turn, each textbook in the Open Road series starts with a foreword page which introduces

the reader to the book´s structure and acts as a threshold for using the book. In the foreword it

is mentioned what kinds of sections the book is formed of and what kind of topics the book

covers. The textbooks are divided into Themes, instead of Units as in the In Touch series, and

in addition to the Themes, the book has sections of Travel Guide, Highway Code, Service

Station, Key, Alphabetical wordlist and Irregular verbs- sections. Also, similarly to the In

Touch textbooks, each of these sections includes a variety of different kind of parts/tasks. The

relevant section to this study is the part FYI, which is the equivalent for Culture Tip in the In

Touch series, and provides cultural information for the student. Cultural references in the

Culture Tip and FYI provided plenty of data for the present study but still were not the main

source for cultural references as the references in these sections mostly placed into one

category, i.e. practices.

Although the textbooks are divided according to different Units or Themes, the sections are

not all dealing with issues of only one ESC each, but a variety of bits and pieces of several

ESCs are presented in some of them. However, one textbook is an exception to this: In Touch

16

2: Been there, done that. The textbook is divided into four Units, each of which focuses

distinctively on one culture: three cover issues relating to only one ESC and one provides a

Finnish culture´s perspective. Unit 1 deals with British culture, Unit 2 covers aspects of

American culture, Unit 3 approaches the topic from Australian culture´s point of view, and

Unit 4 presents Finnish culture. However, in general, all the six textbooks introduce several

ESCs in some manner and provide cultural information to students; the only difference is the

balance in which the different ESCs are presented. The balance between the ESCs can be seen

within the frequency of cultural references in the four categories, according to which the

cultures were examined in the books – persons, products, practices and perspectives.

4.2 Persons and products

The division between the occurrences of cultural references in the categories is distinct in all

six textbooks. The persons and product categories have the most references to different ESCs

in all of the books and less frequent categories are practices and products.

Therefore, the most cultural information of ESCs presented to students is by presentation of

different nationally significant individuals, real or fictive, and introductions of globally spread

products or brands, such as food, clothes and movies. However, the persons category´s

cultural range is not wide and mostly the ESCs presented are British and American cultures.

The cultural references in the persons category are mostly about celebrities as in singers,

athletes, authors and actors, but also characters in literature and movies. The references in the

In Touch textbooks are mostly to these two leading cultures apart from two exceptions: In

Touch 2: Been there, done that! offers the most culturally variable presentation of all of the

three books because it has a chapter solely dealing with Australian culture, and In Touch 3:

Get a life! has a reference to Canadian culture.

The Open Road textbooks realise the same hypothesis of the domination of references to

British and American cultures in persons category, but the rest of the references have more

variation of ESCs they refer to than in the In Touch series´ first three books. Open Road 1 has

also a reference to Indian culture, one to Australian culture, and two references to Canadian

culture. Open Road 2, on the other hand, offers information about Kiwi culture, and Open

Road 3 provides an insight to Australian culture. However, when compared to the number of

references to these other ESCs and to British and American cultures, which both have 10-20

references, the cultural diversity is not relatively notable.

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The next category with the most cultural references is products, which presents information

about all kinds of human produced artefacts, in other words, products that people use: for

example tools, food, clothes and buildings. The In Touch series offers only American and

British culture perspectives in this category, the only exception being In Touch 2 and its

Australian chapter. The Open Road series, on the other hand, discusses two more cultures in

addition to American, British and Australian cultures – Indian and Canadian culture. Mostly

the references in the products category are for example movies and books, but also more

concrete objects are mentioned, such as traffic signs, currency, newspapers and magazines.

On the whole, as these two categories include the most references, some general conclusions

can be made. The Open Road series presents the book´s content in the foreword and for

example Open Road 1 and 3 includes a mention of which cultures will be discussed in the

books: the UK, the US, Australia and India, which is reflected in the findings accordingly. In

Touch 2 is the only textbook that discusses the cultures to be presented: American, British and

Australian (and Finnish) culture, which is also in line with the general outcome of the

findings. Hence, these two categories most obviously demonstrate the general picture of

English-speaking world that the In Touch and the Open Road book series´ first three books

present to upper secondary school students. The cultural overall view of that world is majorly

British and American oriented and even though a few other ESCs are discussed in the books,

the number of references to those cultures is a mere fraction of the references in the books

altogether.

The most frequently referred cultures in the textbooks in the persons and products categories

are logically the American and British culture, as Kachru (Bolton 2006: 293) has researched

that these two cultures are historically the strongest cultures. The U.S. and the UK have also

influenced other countries´ cultures through centuries and have themselves grown as powerful

countries, which mean that their visibility has also been great globally (Snowman 1977: 77).

Gans (1999: 100) discusses the two sides of cultures which can be compared to these two

categories: high culture to persons and low culture to products. This can be again related to

the status that the UK and the U.S. have reached globally today, as it is also a good measure

for how vast the culture has spread, or, in other words, how globally-known their celebrities

and brands are.

In turn, the presentation of Australian culture through these two categories was the next

frequent one and it could be argued that that is due to the status the English language has in

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the country. Kachru (Bolton 2006: 292) explains that countries belonging to the Inner Circle,

must have a primary status for the English language, and in line with this theory Australia can

be arguably supposed to be a third country, in addition to the U.S. and the UK, to have

English as an influential language in the whole country. In other words, as the other ESCs

referred to in these categories, Indian and Canadian cultures have one or several other

historically valued and in day-to-day-use existing language/s next to English, Australia does

not. Moreover, Australian culture has formed a strong cultural identity and therefore is a

debatably suitable topic to be a theme in language classes in school and presented in

textbooks (Garden 2005: 3).

4.3 Practices and perspectives

Practices and perspectives categories are the two categories with fewer cultural references to

ESCs. These two aspects offer insights to ESCs by introducing verbal and non-verbal use of

language, actions and interactions (practices), and cultural values and beliefs (perspectives). It

could be presumed that these categories would provide the most information about ESCs to

students as these are tools which can be used when communicating but nevertheless, few

references per book was found about these two cultural aspects. Furthermore, the

communication skills presented in all the textbooks is mostly non-culture bounded, which is

partly against the view that language and culture cannot be taught separately (Brown 1994:

165, Preisler 1999 as quoted in Wierzbicka 2006: 15).

However, despite the number of references, these references can be argued to be the most

valued in the present study as the category´s references are mostly FYI or Culture Tip-

sections´ content. As Baker (2011: 10) argues, the most relevant issues that form culture are

the ways of communication and behavior. Baker also addresses the value of teaching these in

school as important as without them, one cannot survive in an unfamiliar culture. Thus, as the

FYI and Culture Tip-sections are the most emphasized sections culture-wise in the textbooks,

and are designed in order to attract students´ attention and provide merely additional, cultural

information, this category´s findings can be argued to be as descriptive as the two categories

dealt with above.

The In Touch textbooks offer an already familiar set of ESCs through these two aspects: most

references are to American and British cultures, which explain behavioral patterns in ESCs

and offer tips on how manage oneself when encountering someone from another cultural

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background. Despite the low number of references in these categories In Touch 1 and 3

present two other yet unmentioned ESCs: Irish and South-African cultures. Irish culture has

also formed a strong cultural identity but arguably is considered to be similar and too close to

British culture and that can be concluded to be the reason behind its poor presentation in the

textbooks (Crystal 2003: 66). The presence of South-African culture on the other hand,

demonstrates well the omitting of the several other ESCs of the Inner Circle in the textbooks.

Nevertheless, the cultural variety within these two categories is relatively broader than in

persons and products categories, as the previous two discuss much less number of references.

All the cultures dealt with in these two categories are already frequently mentioned American,

British and Australian cultures and the additional, rarer ESCs, South-African and Irish

cultures.

4.4 Vocabulary

Vocabulary sections were the only parts of the books that offered results somehow against the

study´s hypothesis. In all of the books the lexicon sections are British English and American

English oriented but a third competitive dominant culture is present as well, which is

Australian English. Wierzbicka (2006: 15-22) discusses the concept of the English language

and argues that one English language does not exist anymore but several varieties of it.

Therefore, distinctive terms such as American English should be used in order to be more

specific in one´s meaning and also because of their usefulness. Therefore, the references to

ESCs in the vocabulary sections confirm Wierzbicka´s (2006: 20-25) way of thinking: there

are certain features, words, and differences in spelling or pronunciation that create these

variations and, thus, separate Englishes from each other.

All of the books follow the line of separating at least British English and American English

from one another. All the references are placed in after the words in brackets in the

vocabulary lists and are marking the variation of specific variation of English. In Touch 2 is

the textbook that proved to be the most culturally driven textbook with its clear-cut Unit

divisions and the textbook had the most notions in the vocabulary section too, in which three

variations of Englishes were mentioned: 22 references to American English, 13 references to

British English and six references to Australian English. Likewise, as in general in all of the

books, at least a couple of references are marked to emphasize the spelling variations between

different Englishes: In Touch 1 has four markings about American and British English, In

Touch 3 has references also only to British (10) and American (21) English. To conclude, in

20

terms of vocabulary, The In Touch series´ first-year books are British and America focused

with a hint of Australian English. The Open Road series´ first three textbooks do not differ

greatly either: Open Road 1 has references only about British (3), American (2) and

Australian (2) English, Open Road 2 marks only British (11) and American (4) English

spelling, and Open Road 3 contains again the top three, British (8), American (27) and

Australian (11) English.

Bolton (2006: 294) mentions, as also discussed above that the presentation of the specific

variations of English in the textbooks can be about the fact that the countries where the

language variations have been formed and are used do not have another rival, challenging

language next to English. Thus, the differences between these versions of English are easy to

present and justify the differences to students. The English language has a primary status in

these countries, and all in all, the UK, the U.S. and Australia can be said to function as norm-

providing ESC, including language changes and development as well as spreading both high

and mass cultures (Bolton 2006: 290, Snowman 1977: 76).

5 CONLUSION

To conclude, the domination of American and British culture of the cultural field of English-

speaking world is a discussed topic of scholars like Gans (1999) and Kachru (Bolton 2006,

Crystal 2003). They discuss in their works also about the status of American and British

culture shaping cultures globally, and the present study´s results do not differ from the

contemporary view of dominant ESCs. Kachru (Bolton 2006: 290) states the British culture

and the British English to be one of the most influential ESC in the world and basically, being

the foundation of all other ESCs, including the American culture. However, the U.S.´ status

today as a powerful state leaves the British culture behind in a certain way. In other words,

the British culture is considered to spread high culture around the world today, whereas

American culture spreads mass culture (Gans 1999), and the mainstream culture, which the

Americans spread, can arguably said to be more visible and apparent in the world today.

Nevertheless, despite the differences of their influential aspects and areas, these two are the

dominant ESCs worldwide today. The present study´s results can be compared and are in line

with the situation of the two foremost cultures in the world – the image of the English-

speaking world in both book series, In Touch and Open Road, is majorly created by the

presentation of the two main cultures, British and American.

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Nonetheless, the study was conducted by examining only the first three textbooks of both

book series. Therefore, the amount of data gathered is relatively small and results may not

reflect the alignment of the topic in the complete series. To be able to make generalizations

based on the results, one must examine the series entirely and also include the examination of

auditory material related to the books, which was omitted in the present study due to the

scope of the study. It would also be interesting to find out if the book series´ culture course´s

textbook were to differ majorly in results, or would there be a clear-cut cultural line to be

discovered with both of the series. In addition, the comparison between the series could be

made if all of the books were examined entirely, and would be fascinating to discover has

there been any development in cultural perspectives in general as the In Touch series is older

than the Open Road.

Also, a perspective that would strongly support the study would be the teacher´s point of

view. As stated above, even though teachers in Finland are not required to use a textbook in

teaching, the textbooks´ content provide some sort of outline of teaching, and therefore the

teacher´s alignment would arguably support the textbook content or differ from it. In the end,

the teacher is responsible for his/her teaching and must have clear viewpoints on what to

teach, and therefore, one must have an idea of how to provide cultural information for the

students. In my master´s thesis I plan to focus on this point of view and discover that do

teachers usually have a dominant ESC each teaches English with. Moreover, the contribution

of textbooks in teaching of those teachers who prefer a certain ESC in the classroom would be

another interesting part of the study. All in all, observing individual teachers and their

perspectives about teaching language and culture could provide useful information about

second language learning and teaching, helping also future teachers to form their possible

cultural teaching methods.

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